(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

Tweinty-four (24) Islanders, represented by forty (40) folks, came to kick off the new season. We had 5 boats arrive on Friday, and one more on Saturday. It was one great Spring Meeting weekend.

Here's the full list of attendees. (Corrections appreciated! vanmells@ix.netcom.com) In addition, regulars, Don & Barbara Henderson (Kindred Spirits) and Art & Betsy Fowler (Zenith) passed along their good wishes for a great 2011 season. If you see names on pictures, check back here to put names and faces with boats.

Bella Luna

Robert Deprado

Car

Blue Streak

Don Schumacher

Car

Brigid

Corky & Anna Stewart

Car

Cassiopia

Kit Wiegman

Car

Diana

Lou Zevanov

Car

Finally

David Chiodo

Car

Freedom Won

John & Nanci Melton

Boat

Geja

Andrew Vic

Car

Gypsy

Bob Briggs

Car

Luna Sea

Dan Knox & Myphi Alloy

Boat

Mischief

Charles Hodgkins & Kathryn Munn

Car

Nantucket

Richard & Gina Doyle

Car

Ophira

Gary & Pat Salvo

Boat

Orion

Ray Duran & Tom Alligretti

Car

PacificHigh

Harry Farrell

Car

Pegasus

Robert Aston & Mary Gleim

Car

Serenity

Eric Mueller

Car

Snowflower

Skipper & Nancy Wall

Boat

Tenacious

Kris, Christine & Ryan Youngberg

Car

VanishingAnimal

Rick Van Mell

Car

White Horses

Rob Blenderman, Ruby Wallis & Peggy Nutter + 1

Boat - no overnight

Woden

Bob Kinckerbocker

Car

Woodbine

Ron & Karen Damsen

Boat

Zingara

Steve & Jocelyn Swanson

Car

The weekend started off with a mild, quiet Friday morning. Skipper & Nancy Wall brought Snowflower over early from their Pier 39 berth, and about 11:30 were joined by Ophira, Gary & Pat Salvo. Other Friday arrivals included Ron & Karen Damsen's Woodbine, Dan Knox with Luna Sea and John Melton with Freedom Won. Though the day turned milky white, with touches of blue in the sky and touches of orange in the haze, Dan had a great sail in modest breeze with a building ebb tide and hit 9.2 knots over the bottom. Potluck dinner aboard, followed by lively Islander discussions as the evening cooled to a chill wrapped up Friday night.

Saturday dawned mostly clear with light wind. Most of the rest of the attendees arrived by car -except perhaps, White Horses who said they were coming by Boat, but may have arrived by car. In the warm morning sun, arrivals walked the guest dock and greeted old friends and welcomed newcomers, particularly Robert Deprado, Bella Luna and David Chiodo, Finally.

Around 1100 hours, the party moved up to the Cove House for lunch. With the sun still shining, some gathered on the deck with a beverage and others caught up inside. It was a delight to see Measurer Kris Youngberg, wife Christine and son Ryan representing the future foredeck crew on Tenacious. The table decorations featured model sailboats, with sparkling glasses, baskets of rolls & butter, and even some wine. As usual, San Francisco Yacht Club's great staff served an equally great set of dinner entrees - Baked Atlantic Salmon, London Broil or Chicken Crepes Florentine.

If time & tide wait for no man, our guest speakers had a deadline of their own: be back across the Bay at Golden Gate Yacht Club by 1400 hours to welcome the arrival of the America's Cup. To acommodate the obvious, Commodore Robert Aston announced that the featured presentation would begin immediately as lunch was being served. Pat Salvo introduced GGYC Past Commodore Marcus Young and current Commodore Norbert Bajurin and they provided a video highlight reel of the victory in Valencia, and some slides on the past history of The Cup and plans for AC 34.

With the new 72' America's Cup catamarans expected to be zipping around the Bay at 30 knots, the races are likely to be multiple-times-around courses, which skirt the shores on all sides of the Bay. During racing events the Bay will be closed to almost all traffic, commercial & pleasure, for several hours. Much of the racing is designed for television viewing with races likely to be round an hour or less. Tightly controlled spectator areas are being considered, with the most likely areas being Richardson Bay and the small bay in front of San Francisco andCorinthiann yacht clubs.

Viewing will actually be best on television since all of the AC boats, including the AC45s, are being equipped with cameras and sound. The action will be live from the boats and the screen will likely be overlayed with laylines and boat parameters such as speed and time to laylines, etc. The general plan for races is to start in front of GGYC, head out a short way past the Golden Gate (socamerass will have views of San Franciscothroughh the Golden Gate Bridge with the boats in the foreground), back inside along the north shore past Yellow Bluff and down to Angel Island, then east to just off Treasure Island, and back up to GGYC. Tall "pylon" marks, like those used for airplane racing, are being considered so that spectators and cameras will easily see the marks of the course. It should be a great spectacle!

Marcus & Norbert, who have both sailed on the winning Trimaran, answered many questions - with many answers included in the description above. AC 17, the 90' tri, is now in San Francisco on Pier 80, south of the Bay Bridge. There is no immediate plan to put her back together because her rig is too tall to go under the Bay's 3 bridges, and it would take something like $850,000 to build a new rig. Other tidbits included such thoughts that each new syndicate is likely to have around 100 people; that the Cup was almost melted down for silver 6 years after it was won; and that there are 8 current challengers with hopes for 11 or 12 by the close of entries at the end of March.

After Marcus & Norbert departed, we moved on to our usual committee reports . Pat reported the treasury was in good shape with about $7,000 in total. Dan encouraged all past racers and potential new racers to sign up for the season, and offered mentor help to those who would like it. (2011 Race Schedule ) Commodore Aston gave Tim Shea's cruise report since Tim was off on vacation. (2011 Cruise Schedule ) Then Bob Kinckerbocker reported we were at 159 renewed members at the moment - about right to be on track for the 200 member range we have been at for the last few years. Commodore Aston also read Newsletter Editor Bill Ray's report, including a plan to produce quarterly Newsletters, and an invitation to sent materials to him for future Newsletters. Charles Hodgkins passed out the Webmaster summary showing 391 web pages and 18,785 pictures, and a list of countries with many hits on the web site. We all joked when Russia and central Europe states were high on the list that it must have been because of the incredible Mediterranean pictures and crews that Andrew Vic has rounded up in three years of cruising the eastern Med!

And speaking of Andrew Vic, he told us about editing the hours of video he shot last year cruising I-36 36 Geja around the Mediterranean. It was his third straight summer over there - 1500 miles in 80 days with 22 different crew members. The video & pictures are fantastic! The video is 15 minutes long featuring the highlights of the summer. If you've got the bandwidth, change the YouTube setting from 360p to 720p. Then set the full screen mode, grab a beer, and enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gTkqjozr0s For all the pictures & stories, try Andrew's home page: http://www.sailgeja.com